Saxby Chambliss: 'We got our butts kicked'

Sen. Saxby Chambliss said Wednesday that Republicans calling for a government shutdown over Obamacare are taking the wrong approach, warning that last time the GOP got its “butts kicked.”

“We shut down the government, you remember it well, and we got our butts kicked over shutting down the government,” Chambliss (R-Ga.) said Wednesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” referring to the 1995 shutdown.

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Chambliss said while he thinks Obamacare is a “disaster”, the calls from conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to shut down the government unless the health care law is defunded are misguided.

“I appreciate Ted Cruz’s enthusiasm, but … we’ve been down that road,” Chambliss said. “Is it a fight worth having? Sure it’s a fight worth having: Obamacare is going to be a disaster for the American people. But what we ought to be talking about, Joe, is spending.”